Hi Ron,
I gather you are connected to the RR as you know of the Rail Camp profits, so I refer to RR as you:
It sure is nice to hear of the success of your rail camp program. I made the following suggestion a long while back and it never sparked a comment. You could sell a train of box cars as a rail camp, as condo on the inside owned privately, but you own the "ground" and manage the cars or "trains" and even move them about to different places from time to time. Put in more sidings along your property, if needed, and even Silverton could be a good lay over point.
Think of it like a campground where you make arrangement for group meals at times and group activities, as all condo manage properties with a resident coordinator/maintainer. It sure could be a lot of fun to live in such a wild place but with civil things to do in a group/party setting. Condo get rented by other than owner most of the year, or as the owner desires. The railroad get the revenue of travel in and out to the camps, or even added revenue of moving the cars on trains at certain times.
The RR could easily have thousands of people out on the line earning revenue day and night besides the transportation of moving renter/owner in and out. Profit can be made from Condo Managing, meals, and entertainment. Your cost would be to build up the cars and then sell them, but the railroad would handle the expense of keeping them in running order. Sewerage and water would require new camp sidings to be built. Sewage may be another revenue for transportation out to dump at Durango. The major investment in these RailCamp cars would come from the private investors who buy the insides of the old Box Cars as their cabin or homes. They make the investment for a wonderful adventure and the railroad make the profits by managing all the activities of the users. As the success grows, so do their investments.
In any case, the Historic image of the ‘Camp Train” must be retained like it was a 100 years ago. Exterior of cars must look like old box car.
It must fit the image of the rest of the railroad, and that would be the easy part using the cars that circle the south end of the Durango yard. The D&S, C&TS, and Creed line could be miles of "bedrooms" for day and night revenue.
